The government has proposed a controversial scheme to track shoppers in stores across the UK using hi-tech lighting and face recognition devices.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills wants to set up a ‘smart lighting’ network, linked to mobile phone apps and supermarket cameras.

It claims the plan would slash energy consumption in stores by using eco-friendly next generation lights that better monitor energy use. The move would also pave the way for retailers to target shoppers with personalised marketing as they go round the store, it says.

However, retail leaders raised concerns about the “Big Brother” characteristics of the plan.

“With next generation lighting, it is the equivalent of having a mobile phone in every light in the building and that has huge potential to communicate with mobile phone apps,” BIS senior policy adviser Tony Howells told the Ecobuild conference in London this week.

“Retailers will recognise through face recognition technology when shoppers walk through the door. And the technology can then track where they are, what they purchase and enable them to be sent individual offers as they walk around with absolutely tailored offers. If this takes off, loyalty cards would disappear.”

BRC energy policy adviser Andrew Bolitho gave a guarded welcome to the idea. “I see big data as a potentially very useful tool but there is a moral ground to be taken too. I don’t like the Big Brother element to this,” he warned .

But Howells countered: “The reality is this would put the choice in the hands of individuals. They could switch their devices off if they didn’t want to be included. It may be in time there is a need for regulation to protect them just as there has been with the internet.”

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